Sunday, March 27, 2011

A new challenge arose from the clouds of the youtube community: Can you shoot a machete with a slingshot?

I am not serious if the fellow youtuber was serious or just joking, but I did in anyway!

Now a machete is a very heavy weapon, and strong rubber plus a very long draw was called for. This had to be a slingshot crossbow because the rubber has to be so strong that you can not draw it out with one hand. Also the danger of hitting the hand had to be considered.

The result is actually pretty impressive: The weapon sent the machete all the way up to the hilt into six layers of very thick cardboard. Try to do that by throwing a machete! No way.

The video also shows two very conventional slingshots, both handmade and already presented in some of the forums.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

I could not resist and bought an Oak board on ebay, because it looked special. 9 Euros.

But when it arrived, I noticed that it was fairly thin (20 mm) and full of gaps and cracks. Well, this gnarled ancient wood often is.

So I cut out two frames, then clamped them together and drilled holes from the fork ends and the bottom. Then I opened the two halves and inserted a welded "Y" made from 8 mm threaded rod. Then I glued the three parts together.

But the work only started at that point. It took me three days to close the cracks and gaps with epoxy! I can't remember when I had to spend so much time with just one frame.

The result is quite pleasing, though. It is now absolutely smooth, and all I did is I lightly oiled and polished the frame. Put on a strong set of Thera Gold, matches the pale color of the oak.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

The western world is getting into Easter mode right now. The stores are in full decoration, the spring is coming with force.

It is time to do an "Easter Special" episode on The Slingshot Channel! We bring to you a slingshot that is made for shooting eggs.

Eggs need a special protective pouch, due to their fragility. The pouch used in the video was made from Kydex, a plastics material that you can form into any shape under heat. Once cooled, it will keep that shape. kydex is hard, and a handslap with the huge egg pouch would be very dangerous. Therefore, the "slingshot on a stick" method, invented by Boyntonstu from out of Florida, is employed.

The stick is over 180 cm long, an enormous draw. The heavy eggs reach tremendous speed (about 165 feet per second). The spectacular impact is shown in super slow motion, recorded at 1200 frames per second.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Found this frame on a Sunday morning walk through the woods. Good that I always carry a foldable saw with me!

It was a dead tree, already started to wither a bit. But it felt solid.

I did not expect much when I started to work on it, but then I discovered that there was a layer of pink underneath the bark! When I polished the fork, it turned out that the grain is just beautiful. Very dark brown around the knobs, in some places almost white and of course the pink...

I did NOT tint it, this is the natural color. I only used clear poly to protect it and to bring out this "wet" look.

Isn't it amazing that dead wood, when harvested just on time, often has the nicest grain?

A great shooter, banded it up with very light target bands - it is strong enough for serious bands, too.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

This is a video specifically for the survivalists amongst my audience - because if you find yourself in a TEOTWAWKI situation, you will have to hunt down your food as supermarkets will be looted in no time. Of course you can make a slingshot very easily if you have some rubber, but without practice, a slingshot is worthless as a hunting weapon.

A slingshot crossbow is a different issue. It allows you to hit small game from distances between 10 and 30 meters easily, even without any kind of practice.

But how do you make a slingshot crossbow when you are out in the wild, without power tools, without a DIY market for the parts?

Bill Hays (he is a vendor and fellow enthusiast from the slingshotforum) recently brought up the info that a slingshot band does not need a fork, simply an edge to be pulled over - like the end of a 2 by 4 or so. I decided to work on that concept and love it! Thanks Bill.

This video shows how to make a very accurate slingshot crossbow from tree branches and twigs, with nothing but a pocket knife as a tool. So as long as you keep some rubber in your BOB, you can make a very accurate and effective hunting weapon in a couple of hours.

Of course you can use any tree branch for the weapon, but in this video, an old christmas tree is used for the stock/frame of the weapon. This adds a nice touch to this The Slingshot Channel production!